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Apple Backs Blu-ray
zaxios writes "The New York Times is reporting that Apple has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, and will use Blu-ray in upcoming versions of iMovie and Final Cut. The move puts Apple among Sony, Matsushita, Dell, HP and Walt Disney in supporting Blu-ray; companies including Toshiba, NEC, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Universal and Paramount are pledged to adopt the competing HD-DVD format. Apple's support confirms Blu-ray's future dominance on the desktop, but the division in Hollywood and notebook manufacturers between the two HD videodiscs will ensure the bona fide format war we were all secretly pining for."
Mark your Calendar folks - all slashdot trolls, old and new, will be out posting their abusive, and ever so slightly amusing posts on this day.
That, combined with the ususal shit that prevails on this day of the year, should make for a chaotic day of slashdot browsing; so stock up on Cheezals and drag those old troll accounts out of retirement for this monumental day of historic nostalga.
Any idea's for themes (apart from the classic 'FIRST POST' - which, I might add gets funnier each time I see it)
Blu-ray backs you!
...its not Microsoft backing Blu Ray or we'd have to turn against HD DVD.
Apple's support confirms Blu-ray's future dominance on the desktop
Against the MS behemoth supporting HDDVD? Why exactly?
And mow for something completely different, who pays this site's bills?
-mkb
Well, not really, seeing Apple's tiny market share...
I really think the HD-DVD will win simply becuase of the name.
Consumer: You mean this is a H D DVD. Wow I have been hearing so much about how good HD is so I want one.
Dont laugh VHS rolled of tounge better than Beta Max. One has to wonder what marketing genus wanted to call their product beta anyway
How long til Dell suddenly decides to back Blu-Ray, too ?
Another perfectly good technology ruined by the evils of DRM
Be sure to sign the guest book for the dearly departed Klerck
Now if IBM could jump on the Blu-Ray bandwagon we'd be set!! We (the OSS croud, linux personally) would see a lot more support with HP, Apple plus IBM's support...
========
77 77 77 2e 6d 65 6c 76 69 6e 73 2e 63 6f 6d
Forget about Sony, HP, Matsushita, Apple, Dell, and Disney...
The porn industry, which releases 11,000 titles a year, will likely silently decide which format "wins" (previous slashdot coverage).
And some of the bigger porn houses are coming down on the side of Blu-ray because of its capacity advantage over HD-DVD. That the porn industry would have such an influence comes as no surprise to those who know just how big the industry really is.
Well, now that Sony's on board we know it's a real standard. This is good news, as I can finally archive my collection of Betamax tapes.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
I remember reading specs and what it seemed to me was Blu-ray was simply better from the users point of view. I think it took more work on the manufacturers side and forced them to do a lot of extra work for it to be able to read traditional DVDs, but that shouldn't be as important.
Am I on the ball here or is there really not a complete performance domination by Blu-ray?
CC
CKSCIII
Apple among Sony, Matsushita, Dell, HP and Walt Disney
For those of you that don't recognize the name "Matsushita", they're probably known to you as Panasonic.
clearly. There guest and 8ever get own ag3nda - give BY SIMPLE FUCKING OUTER SPACE THE
It'll be interesting to see what the Apple design team comes up for the external blue ray drives. Wonder what color they'll be...
Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately attributed to ignorance. -Napoleon
http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?st =b&na=88&View=en-us&qu=bluray
results = 0
When you consider that DL DVD drives have been out for some time (reasonably priced), yet the media still costs about 10 bucks a pop, can you imagine what the Blu-Ray (or HD) discs will go for? At the risk of dating myself (not like anyone else would, HA), I was an early adopter for the *new* high-density 3.5" floppies at about $80 for a box of 10.
Realistically, once the next-generation drives and discs are out, it will lower the price of DL media into something more affordable.
Mr. T pitied this fool on 27 July 1992.
Its not so much that their two diffrent formats (As there will be at some point a combo drive, it always happens)...
its the fact that there are going to be two _competing_ formats which means...
lower prices!
-ND
in whatever direction the wind happens to be blowing. BluRay is the better format without doubt and the longer this drags on the more obvious the difference between the formats will become.
We can expect and MS back BluRay with their new WMV codec any day soon.
Firewire never gained more of the market share over USB, and that is why all DVDs use MPEG4.
History fails you.
steve jobs 3
They should be focusing on sexbots. Which format will win? RealDoll or Superbabe2000? Admittedly both formats are still rudimentary, and lack certain features, such as actual robotics, but things are progressing.
When do we get Blu-Ray Burners in G5 Powermacs? 50GB Superdrive Baby!
Shall we review some of the technology apple backed before it got big on the desktop?
Apple's decision to ship USB on the iMac marked the start of USB as a consumer interface.
Ditto for firewire, floppy-less machines.
And what's MS gonna do with HD-DVD? Ship computers with it? Disable Blu-Ray drives? E-THIS-FORMAT-SUCKS: ?
I think they planned to annouce this at the MacWorld Keynote, but sometihng kept them from doing it. Why else would they have gotten the CEO of Sony to be there? They could have gotten anybody from Sony to demo their HDV camera, CEO appearances are saved for special occasions. As far as the HDV camera goes, Sony isn't the only manufacturer with an HDV prosumer camera.
look how well Sony got that to take off in the USA
i type this as someone who has a few pieces of MD hardware and actually likes it.... though i think most people that use(d) minidiscs liked them. i never bought pre-recorded music but used it to replace cassettes.
Whichever one I buy will be the one that loses. *kicks beta max*
So why, exactly, should I be pining for a format war?
All that means to me is several years of incompatible hardware, price fluctuation, and annoying-ass FUD campaigns ("Our discs last longer! HD-DVDs melt after three months!" "That's a lie, plus OUR discs have better color density on playback!" "Oh YEAH?? Well, OUR discs...")
A format war might drive prices down more quickly in the short term, but what good is that to me if I need to buy new hardware and don't want to get stuck with a lemon during those few years before either one format wins hands-down or dual-capability drives get introduced?
and from now on we'll call it BondiBlu-ray
one format is a lot cheaper to make the discs, the other has much larger capacity. that is pretty much what it boils down to. both are good formats, and better than what we have now.
Yes, apple backed +R. But +R lagged behind early on because the discs were 2X the price (even thought they burned at 2.4x vs 2x...nobody was impressed).
The reason +R survived was that manufacturers created +/- drives. Now +R discs are comparable in price to -R. +R also has a better following now because its supported by about the same number of consumer players, usually as a brief edge in speed and is the only DL format. But those last three are just icing. The real reason it's alive is the dual format burners. The real reason it's popular is because its price competitive.
Hint: if you want BluRay to succeed, make sure that all the pressed content is out there in BR. If you want it to crush HD-DVD, make Blu-ray cheaper to buy blank media, cheaper to manufacture pressed discs, and make the hardware the same cost as HD-DVD. As icing, make sure every BluRay player can play HD-DVD as well.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
For those who are interested in the rumored Apple-Sony connection, this could be seen as a way for Apple to please Sony...
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Two reasons beta lost out to vhs, despite higher quality: Sony was restrictive in its patent licensing, and the tape couldn't record more than 2 hours.
Best Slashdot Co
Now there will be TWO other ways for them to release about a billion old movies and tv shows...I own about 5 copies of the Star Wars Trilogy as it is.
Jesus, how stupid can you mods be!! Or how fucking pro-apple. The parent statement is WRONG!
Read the other responses to the post, the parent is clearly mac propaganda.
One more time...geesh, slashdot has such fucking mac fanboys. You idiots would probably be pro Mac toilet paper too...
Ah the memories of buying 3.5 floppies 1 at a time for $8. You had to ask the cashier to give it to you from under the counter at the VA Tech Bookstore circa 1987.
They don't like Blu-Ray because it can hold HDTV quality video.
You do get that MPAA's plan is to sell you HD-DVD at sort of EDTV solution, then tell you its obsolete and sell you something else with slightly higher resolution.
They claim their content is licensed, but they keep selling us a license over and over again for the same content. Just different format.
And we're so stupid we buy into it.
> Apple has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association
Blue-ray will fail because the disks won't play in the current installed base of DVD players. People
now have DVD players in their living rooms, SUVs, cars, laptops, desktops, bedrooms, kitchens, vacation homes-- do you
really want to explain to your kid that the new Spiderman3 Blue-ray disk they bought won't play in the minivan?
HD-DVD multilayer disks can be made completely backwards compatible- HD on new layers for the home theater in the basement, conventional resolution on other layers for the car. Stores will only have to stock one disk. This will decide it.
"YAAAY!! Yayyyyy Apple!! Go APPLE!! YESSSSSS!
..... um, what's blu-ray?"
Dude,
Chicks get into porn when they're about 21, and are out by 24.
Only a few girls stay until they're 30.
And no, please don't feel sorry for them. They will make more in a 3 year career then most of us will make in 20 years.
Watch HBO's Pornucopia for a real eye-opener on the porn industry. If I was a hot chick, I'd do porn in a flash (pardon the pun).
That handle'd better be ironic, dipshit.
Apple has only ever supported DVD-R for recording.
Now that DVD+/-R recorders have been out for 2 year, Apple is still pushing just the -R.
I know, I just bought an iMac G5 last month, and annoyingly, you have to buy blank -R's, not the more common and popular +R's.
just be the only thing Steve Jobs and Disney agree on....
Blacker than my baby girl's stare. Black like the veil that the muslimina wear. Black like the planet that they fear...
IDIOT!!! you are wrong
apple did not back DVD+R it was DVD-R!!!
get your facts straight
you also know nothing about patent burden on +R and -R it seems
That was funny. One of the more interesting things I've seen in my life was a German version of Penthouse with the same layout as an American one someone had lying around. I thought something looked odd about the model. When I compared the two, I saw that the German layout hadn't airbrushed the panty marks and other minor skin blemishes from the model.
Heck, she was still good looking, but somehow wasn't quite as "perfect" as the airbrushed version and I found myself definately prefering that "perfection".
Call me a pig if you want, and I do love looking at "real" women with all of their imperfections, but the parent is absolutely right. Do we really want to see High Def tit-job scars? How about stretch marks?
High def can have the tendency to look real. Unfortuneatly, the reason we buy porn isn't reality, it's fantasy.
TW
I have a 2 month old iMac that only supports -R. Where can I get the firmware hack?
Yay! One more company to support the technically superior (see http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/186 for technical details) BD format! :) Apple's market share might not make that much of a dent in the HD-DVD vs. BD war, but Apple does carry a name recognition and "cool factor" that might help. And Pixar, too.
Gobbleshoe.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Oh boy...just like the years when Beta, then VHS came out wahoo...I can but one player, buy all the videos I enjoy on it, then a few years later when the format dies, I can buy yet another player and all the videos I enjoy on it!!! Just what i've always wanted! :)
You have two competing formats... All other things being equal, one supports significantly more storage space than the other. Just based on that Blu-Ray wins hands down. Unfortunately, what I think could happen is that movies will be released on the two formats with identical quality, only the Blu-Ray version will be stuffed with more advertisements. And for PC archival purposes, I can't imagine anyone supporting hddvd. Blu-Ray will finally give us an optical media format with nearly as much capacity as a DLT tape. -BT
Magnavox (Philips) ...
and POLAND!!!!
Apple fucks up again!
Not unusual altough given their patetic history as a company.
BillGatesOwnsOurAsses
Almost every media standard Apple had backed early has succeeded overall in the market. Ones that Apple snubbed (or where it has been snubbed e.g. MPEG4) have had real problems getting established, and have mostly failed.
Since when is Apple snubbing, or being snubbed by, MPEG4?
Blu-ray has several things going for it. . .
Playstation 3 inclusion of Blu-ray would prove to be a massive boost for the standard as it automatically gives an instant installed base in the tens of millions. As initial players will likely be relatively pricey, it's usually difficult to start the momentum to get enough installed base on the market so that studios would want to produce content for it, and more content usually then convinces more people to buy into the standard. However, by PS3 being Blu-ray compatible automatically creates a massive installed that studios can produce content for to start the ball rolling.
Secondly, Blu-ray seems to be more scalable then HD-DVD with comapanies planning 4-layer 100GB and 8-layer 200GB multilayered disks. Also, Blu-ray seems to be getting more hardware on the market then HD-DVD, especially since Sony and Matsushita (Panasonic, Technic, Fisher, etc) are backing it. Sony has just annouced Blu-ray drive for the PC that can write to write-once 50GB disks or rewritable-50GB disks.
BLu-ray drive for PC
Apple plans to show its support by launching high end editing software that 1% of the 10% of Mac users with high end PowerMacs of the 4% Apple market share will use. What an event!
As HDDVD, so says John C. Dvorack. Of course this means it WILL become the standard.
Damn, hard drive costs are just coming down to a point where it is feasible to rip all your movies to disk without down-coding. Now with new HD video media that option will be right out the window! How am I supposed happily watch a movie when my anal-retentive freakish videophile nature keeps telling me I could be watching it in higher quality! ARGH!
I find laziness to be an excellent motivator.
Yep, overall they have a tiny market share, but iMovie is delivered on every single one, so 100% of that small market share will have the capability.
I have a G4 PowerBook and it works great, even in HD mode.
I think we're standing on the format wars battlefield and the point has tipped towards Blu-Ray. Ten years from now, when the format has been settled upon, we will be able to look upon this day and say, this is where the end of the wars began.
I don't think Apple by itself could have done it, but Apple + PS3 are like the proverbial 800 pound gorilla.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
The original iMac didn't have Firewire. My friend got one September 1998 (they came out in august). We've been trying to figure out how to add a CD burner ever since.
Latewire
Error correction/scratch protection. There may be some (or even many) of you out there who loathed CD-Caddy drives in the early days, but I MISS THEM. One thing the caddy did was protect the disc and prevent scratches. You could stick a caddied disk in your pocket and walk arround with it all day, pull it out, pop it in, and away you go. If you do that with a bare CD, by the end of the day you'll be lucky if it'll still read. Insertion and removal from a case is a pain, and I never met a jewel case as strong as even flimsy caddies. Sure, the prevelence and price reduction of media means if you ruin a disk you just burn another and don't care...
The problem is (and was/still is with DVD) that high data density makes the media far more succeptable to surface imperfections, be they scratches or dirt. Who hasn't sighed in irritation at rental DVD's that skip or blurt? And if you think DVD's are bad, just think for a minute about an optical media with 10 times the data density! Until synthetic diamond becomes cheap enough to coat consumer level optical discs with, I look forward to the return of our Caddy-Carrying Overloards.
Either that or there needs to be some SERIOUS error correction implemented. The average consumer just isn't going to want to handle a movie like it was a precious peice of china. Without some solution to this problem neither media will catch on with me. Maybe "they" are just planing on selling you a new copy of the disc every six months, but archivers and folks who use the media for data storage are not gonna like that.
A Call For A New Slashdot Moderation Level!
Most modern DVD players (even the cheapo $50 ones) can play back an array of formats - DVD video and audio, CD audio, MP3 CDs, VCDs, Picture CDs, etc. Why not players that support both HD formats?
It may be cost-prohibitive for the first couple generations of players (especially the differing physical specs of the formats), but I'm sure manufacturers are going to include backwards-compatibility with DVDs and CDs in their units to make upgrading more attractive to consumers anyway. What's another decoding circuit cost?
I truthfully see Blu Ray becoming the Next Zip Drive/Tape Backup and not the next home entertainment media. I think the movie industry is going to wind up backing HD-DVD in the long run first off the Name alone is going to sell HD-DVD to the consumer, everyone knows what a DVD is, but not eveyone knows what the hell a Blu-Ray is. Price also is going to play a major factor and HD-DVD is cheaper. And also the look, HD-DVD looks like a DVD while Blu Ray is in a cart. People are going to buy what they feel safe with and HD-DVD is alot safer then Blu Ray. But as I said I think Blu Ray is going to become the next Zip Drive or Tape Back up. The amount of storage one of thouse disc has is great and would work great for backing up your PC/Mac. So I see Blu Ray replaceing the Zip Drive or any other storage media. As for the entertainment industry, Blu Ray may get adapted like how Beta Max was. But its not going to take off in the Home area. Also incase anyone didn't know, Apple is suporting BOTH HD-DVD and Blu Ray.
-------- -Cap
~Bommers, Why did it have to be Bommers!?!
Firewire never gained more of the market share over USB, and that is why all DVDs use MPEG4.
History fails you.
Show me how all DVD's use Mpeg4. They don't. They use Mpeg2.
I suppose you could say the same thing about Zip...we all have Zip drives now thanks to Apple, right?
WARNING: DO NOT LET DR. MARIO TOUCH YOUR GENITALS. HE IS NOT A REAL DOCTOR.
Apple's support confirms Blu-ray's future dominance on the desktop..
WTF? Just because Apple backs something its the "new hotness"? Says who?
Replace "Apple" with "Microsoft" and its "t3h 3v1l".
Like the iPod was really that fucking innovative. Wow, an MP3 player in a tampon-white packaging. Neat-O!
I'm really sick of the editor inserting their own fucking opinions into the article lead-ins. If you want to suck at the teat of Steve Jobs, go apply for a position at Apple.
"...but the division in Hollywood and notebook manufacturers between the two HD videodiscs will ensure the bona fide format war we were all secretly pining for."
I know I'm not looking forward to the possibility of having to either invest in two seperate technologies to be entertained...I got boned on that last time around when I decided that I was going to go the MD route and pass on MP3. I ended up buying an iPod only after I got really sick of having to find new places to order my discs and accessories from...I still use my MD player for recording meetings and concerts and such, but not much else.
So, no, not all of us are looking forward to playing an expensive game of pick and choose. Personally, I'll be a laaaaaate-adopter for this next round, as my budget precludes me from dipping into both.
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
PARENT is insightful. Slashdot is dieing; apple bought 44% (majority ownership).
For those with no NYT Login:
Apple Computer is backing the Sony Corporation's Blu-ray format for the next generation of digital videodiscs, bolstering Sony's effort to dominate the $26 billion United States market for DVD's and players.
Apple, whose computers run software to create DVD's, joined the Blu-ray Disc Association's board, a statement by Blu-ray said yesterday. Sony is fighting to win support for its standard over one called HD-DVD that is backed by Toshiba and NEC.
Blu-ray said Apple would support the new high-definition DVD format in its iMovie and Final Cut video-editing software programs.
"Apple is pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD," Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, said in a statement on the Blu-ray Web site.
The competing formats promise high-definition pictures, better sound quality, more storage capacity and better copyright protection than standard DVD's. The backing of film studios and computer makers like Apple will help determine the dominant standard. Blu-ray has five times the capacity of current discs and more than the HD-DVD standard.
Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., said, "Capacity is everything" for personal computer makers, adding, "In capacity, Blu-ray is much better."
Blu-Ray's backers include the two big PC makers, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, in addition to Sony, Walt Disney and Thomson, the largest supplier of recorded DVD's. Film studios including Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Universal and Paramount have said they will adopt HD-DVD. The studios may agree later to release movies on Blu-ray discs.
The Blu-ray Disc Association, with more than 100 members, develops specifications, including compatibility, for the format as well as promoting it. Blu-ray refers to a blue laser that reads and records the format, according to the Blu-ray Web site.
Everyone is saying that its going to use disk caddys. If they, its a no brainer who is going to win.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
You're correct that the iMac wasn't the first to ship with USB but I don't think you can argue against that it was the iMac that caused USB to become so popular today.
Apple has less than 2% of the PC market. In the broad scheme of things, they are a very small-time player in the industry. They definitely did not cause USB to become so popular today.
Intel is the reason. Intel, with it's 90%+ marketshare in the CPU market, created the USB standard and pushed for it. Since Intel had such dominance in the CPU and chipset market, any motherboards that were designed for their CPU's and/or used their chipsets supported USB. If you were a motherboard manufacturer and designed a new MB at that time, you most likely used an Intel chipset and supported USB. Almost all the new motherboards being made for the PC industry had USB capability, thanks to Intel being the de facto standard.
I was working in the motherboard industry when Intel first started the push for USB. They made it easy for any motherboard manufacturer to include USB on their motherboards. They created the standard, and created the USB Implementers Forum in 1995 to push the industry to adopt its standard.
http://www.intel.com/standards/case/case_usb.htm
Strange that Sony backs Blue Ray when my new Sony DVD plauyer says HD-DVD right on the front. Hmmm.
Apple was not the first to incorporate USB ports on their computers, that much is correct. However, until Apple introduced the iMac and essentially forced USB on their users, there were very very very few actual USB devices available. It was only after the iMac came out that you could begin finding USB devices in your typical computer store.
Just using a little common sense here, do you think the USB peripheral market exploded because Apple, with its 2% of marketshare adopted it, or do you think it's because the other 98% of the market adopted it?
Even if Apple went belly up, it's hardly going to dent the overall PC industry. I know Apple has some very enthusiastic fans, but you need to keep things in perspective and look at the overall picture. Apple's Mac is a novelty act, they are not a major player.
In more modern times, the Ipod is a product that's a very major player in the Mp3 player market. They carry a lot of weight in that market and since they're such a major player, they have much influence in the direction that the market takes. But as far as the PC industry, the Macintosh is just a drop of water in the pond.
Shouldn't this have been "Apple Backs Away from HD-DVD"?
SWEEEEEEEEETTTTT!!!!!!
Holy Shit, this is going to be beautiful. They're going to get their shit all focused and setup, and completely lose their ass.
It's going to be glorious. I'm buying ring-side seats for this one.
Buy a dual-format player and let others "argue" about which format is better.
This "format war" is no different from SACD v. DVD-Audio, and surprise: there are plenty of dual-format players to choose from. Home entertainment competition is intense: more than one manufacturer will certainly support both high def video formats as well.
I am sure it has already been said before but with Apples insignificant market share who really cares who Apple backs in the DVD wars?
/. anyway??? ).... :)
I took a pool in our office and we are gonna back HD-DVD.... that is about as meaningful a statement.
Interesting (or worrisom) for Apple users, but who gives a F@&k for everyone else (how may apple users read
my 0.02$
Why would anyone pine for this? All this means is there will be more inconvienence for us the customers.
Im reminded of the memory stick invention. Who here loves the new odd shapped slots on their computer that reads 6 different formats?
Look for DVD-R's versus DVD+R's.
I'm not making a comment about which is "better" (neither, IMHO), I'm just pointing out the DVD+R blank media is easily 5-10 times as easy to find. Its cheaper.
No use arguing. Just look on froogle.
Now that we know it's going to be HD-DVD, we can all go buy our hardware.. :)
What exactly is the reason we need to suddenly upgrade to a different format? DVDs don't seem to me to have any shortfalls. People are just NOW accepting the DVD as the new standard, and there are homes that are still yet to upgrade from VHS to DVD. Why bother launching yet ANOTHER campaign telling people to get with the times and get a whole new digital media player?
Additionally, unless any of these formats have functional recording capabilities OUT OF THE BOX like the VCR, the aging VHS format will still not be replaced. Most people cannot afford a monthly subscription fee for a TiVo-like device, nor can they afford to buy an extra broadband-enabled computer to stick next to their TV to record the footage to expensive hard drives that can be lost much easier than tangible media like the VHS tape.
People seem to love modding me down for pointing out their stupidity and arrogance...
Isn't about time we all embraced the Beta Max format?
Current enocders work fine. Right now you can get Terminator 2 Extreme Edition which has one DVD that is a normal video DVD and one that is 1080p HD content in Windows Media 9 format. It looks awesome and is comming off a normal DVD.
Any MPEG-4 or VC-1 compressor (or other comparable technologies) should be able to adequately compress HD content at DVD rates (7mbps). It wouldn't be quite as sharp as the orignal, but neither is the current DVD->CD translation.
The Blu-ray spec only includes two layers; therefore that is what Blu-ray players will support. If more layers are added to some future version of the spec, those discs still won't be playable on all Blu-ray players.
will be called Hyperdrive!
Forget Sony, it's Disney that's the kiss of death.
Anyone else remember what company was the biggest backer of DIVX?
How about the self-oxidizing, disposeable EZ-D format?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
They have a cooler name, easier to say and remember for consumers. The consumer market is weird that way.
that's my SWAG on it
How like them to support a format with the smaller chance of success. Just got to be different, no matter the cost!
So next year everyone that buys a mac will be buying an incompatible DVD drive. Then 2 years after that Apple will finally wise up and start using the industry standard, leaving another giant chunk of their customers out to pasture...
As others have noted, the PS3 supporting Blu-Ray is probably all it will take to make movie makers produce Blu-Ray compatible content.
The other thing Blu-Ray has going for it is that Sony has a big stake in both sides of the equation.
If Sony DVD players only support Blu-Ray, it will be difficult for other content-publishers to ignore that market share, particularly since the movie-studios really don't have a dog in this fight.
Then, Sony is also a major studio, soon to own MGM as well. If Sony only produces it's content in Blu-Ray format, the other electronic manufacturers will have to support it and create hardware that will support either format. Unlike Universal Studios and Paramount, etc, Sony can get away with this because they do have a dog in this fight, that being their electronics division.
So, Sony Pictures will be willing to give up some market share to support the format, whereas the other studios supporting HD-DVD ultimately will not be willing, since they don't have any stake in the other side of the equation.
The only reason the other studios are even chiming in on this discussion is because they are trying to limit the power of Sony. They have no significant vested interest as Sony does.
If Sony manages to get the hardware makers producers players that support both formats, it will only be a matter of time before nobody produces anything but Blu-Ray content.
Blu-ray is higher capacity and higher cost. That's why componies that sell better products for higher prices (and when they do it right, get higher profit margins) are supporting it. Sun supported Blu-ray on their systems first, apple is just following their lead in the workstation/high end desktop market.
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
And also the look, HD-DVD looks like a DVD while Blu Ray is in a cart.
You're saying that Blu-Ray is a caddy-based format? I read that they had more troubles with scratches than HD-DVD, but they had fixed it with a new coating. Can you verify that Blu-Ray is caddy? I've been personally hoping that HD-DVD would catch on, but I've always been a big fan of caddies.
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
Apple's endorsement of something doesn't inspire any confidence in its 'future dominance' from me. Isn't apple the poster child of the one-brand standard?
Consider this: the competition between +R and -R DVD formats probably helped push new features (not least +-R dual burners) as well as drive down prices. Even compatibility issues, while a hassle at first, in the long run seems to have lead to DVD players that will cope with anything, even round bits of bread being stuck in the drive (as long as they are buttered).
By the time DVD burners reached a price point I could afford, all the format issues had been worked out. Sure, my first drive (Pioneer 104) was -R only, but by that point which format you had didn't really make difference.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Sidenote is neither HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray support the DV format as an official video format, which means joe public still has to go through the hassle of transcoding DV to MPEG2/WMV/H.264 to play home movies. Isn't the world tired of making ugly compressions of compressions yet?
Such a shame given a Blu-Ray disc should be able to hold a couple hours of DV video.
Same is true on the other end of the spectrum. If you have low quality MPEG4 files or H.263 files you have to transcode them to MPEG2/WMV/H.264 as well. Again a compression of a compression.
Why can't these video formats specify the cumulative sum of all major codecs invented at the time of the format? Is it really that hard to mandate ffmpeg in the Blu-Ray spec instead of a proprietary Microsoft WMV codec?
What's a Cheezal?
Seriously, I'm curious.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Microsoft holds off on itself suppot either format, letting others (like Apple) make a solid investment in Blu-Ray, then comes out with strong, integrated support for HD-DVD but finds a way to cripple use of Blu-Ray devices with Windows. A bug forced onto machines by way of a "Critical Security Update" would work nicely.
iMovie and Final Cut Pro would not have Blu-Ray support.
iDVD and DVD Studio Pro would.
(The original is like saying my car's engine will support 8-Tracks. The stereo is what determines support of media types, not the engine.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Sony also pioneered Memory Stick media, which has found a range of uses - all the way from digital cameras manufactured by Sony, to digital camcorders manufactured by Sony! They hold a wide range of advantages over other, cheaper media - such as their stick shape!
Well, video professionals are still using the analog Betacam SP and Digital Betcam. They're based on the Betamax tape shell, but run at higher speeds and have much better image quality than Betamax did.
Sony Professional has certainly made enough profit on those formats to make up for the Betamax losses by now.
My video compression blog
I love dvds for many reason, but I hate their unreliability. They degrade far less gracefully than cds, grinding to a halt instead of skipping. I've had even the newest dvd players, and current computers, crash when encountering minor dvd scratches.
So is it a good idea to increase the dvd's capacity? Are the Blu-ray or HD-DVD consortia doing anything to improve digital degrading?
Or is digital storage the wrong form for physical distribution of entertainment? Should we be pushing for refinements in analog instead? After all, my lps may be scratchy, but they all still play, as opposed to kill bill 1 which just crashed last month on my dvd player...
Hmmm. Blu-Ray is supported by Sony, JVC, Panasonic/Matsushita, Phillips, Thomson...
Sony + Phillips = CDs
JVC+Panasonic/Matsushita = VHS
Thomson (owns RCA and Telefunken) = SECAM, PAL, and NTSC television formats
Yup, that standard's doomed to failure.
Apple is the new Microsoft.
why this is such an issue. What does this bring to the table of joe sixpack? Other than videophiles, who will benefit from this? When I first learned about Blu-Ray I though, GREAT! now I will be able to store 3 or 4 movies on one disc, guess not huh? Will we see entire Clint Eastwood collections on one DVD? Will this somehow reduce the number of DVD's in my collection? 93% of the people who watch movies watch them once then never look at them again, how does this help that crowd? Can I pop in a disc and have a whole movie collection at my fingertips? NO!!! This is just another format to only store 1 movie on a disc? I have to buy another player? All my old movies will become obsolete? This will always remain as a niche for the *philes sect. I mean I dont really care that much about HD, so what if I could have seen the bumps on Janet Jacksons nipples if I had High Def, OH BOY, my life is complete now. I just dont see what Hi Def really adds to any movie I have seen using this tech (and I have seen a lot of them). Other than adding more useless glitz and shine, I have not seen 1 presentation of High Def that has benifited by being High Def. High Definition has never added anything to any story. This is just more glitz to hide the fact that hollywood is tapped out, finished, dried out and otherwise bereft of producing anything resembling art. Its a technology only designed to make you go ohh and ahh at the pretty explosions or the wonderful scenery, it does not improve on any current technology and has no value add. Most of the people I know who have switched from VHS to DVD did it because DVD's are smaller and more convenient to store than VHS tapes.
At first NEC tried to get away with charging extra for DL functionality until everyone found out their single-o layer drives were a rom flash away from DL, and then suddenly everyone had DL +/- drives on the market for $50.
But the DL media is STILL a zillion a pop, when you can find it. The only stuff I've seen retail has been bunlded with a bunch of overpriced -R media, *AND*, real expensive to boot.
Is it just not really viable from an engineering perspective or is there some conspiracy to keep me from DVDShrinking by less than 5%?
Wow. I... would not have thought of that. So they come from Middle-ear^WNew Zealand, then...
As for the analogous American snack, I think you may be talking about "3D Doritos".
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Sexy.
Whatever got highest share, I will go for Bluray.
:) I speak about scratches etc.
I am really tired of handling DVDs like 1mm thin glass or they need cleaning. Thats also a reason why dvd audio will never succeed in handheld/car . The physical shape is damn fragile. If you ever forget to put in their cover, something always happen. Not speaking about spilling coffee of course
I would have thought the irony was apparent to anyone with modest intelligence and a vague grip on reality. I'm beginning to see my error...
Blank until
I'm sorry, but that's just wrong.
I'm sorry, but you're an idiot. No one has ever said that Apple invented USB. What they did do was get the ball rolling by selling millions of computers that only had USB. Prior to that, the vast majority of PC peripherals used the parallel port interface, because manufacturers could count on consumers having one, but not necessarily USB. After the release of the iMac they could make a device that used USB, and work on both Macs and PC's released within the last couple of years. Score!
Firewire has (sadly) failed to attain critical mass - the market for it is driven by DV cameras though, not apple.
The hell are talking about here; most peripherals (mice, keyboards, pritners) don't need Firewire's speed, and there are plenty of Firewire DVD burners and hard drives at your local Best Buy.